Gen Wealth Partners Inc Buys New Position in Mueller Water Products, Inc. (NYSE:MWA)

Gen Wealth Partners Inc purchased a new position in shares of Mueller Water Products, Inc. (NYSE:MWA) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm purchased 2,890 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $65,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Mueller Water Products by 2,962.3% in the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,015,009 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $67,838,000 after acquiring an additional 2,916,552 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Mueller Water Products by 79.7% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,014,131 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $90,318,000 after buying an additional 1,780,366 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Mueller Water Products in the fourth quarter valued at about $20,996,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Mueller Water Products by 49.4% during the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 2,688,962 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $60,502,000 after buying an additional 888,591 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its position in Mueller Water Products by 514.2% in the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 970,055 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $21,826,000 after acquiring an additional 812,127 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.68% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have weighed in on the company. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on Mueller Water Products from $25.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Mueller Water Products from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Mueller Water Products from $26.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $26.25.

Insider Activity at Mueller Water Products

In other news, Director Lydia W. Thomas sold 17,092 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.77, for a total transaction of $457,552.84. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 126,689 shares in the company, valued at $3,391,464.53. This represents a 11.89 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Brian Slobodow sold 7,376 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.57, for a total value of $181,228.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 35,600 shares of company stock valued at $914,076. 1.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Mueller Water Products Stock Down 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE MWA opened at $24.54 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.24. Mueller Water Products, Inc. has a 52 week low of $17.09 and a 52 week high of $28.58. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $25.64 and a 200 day moving average price of $24.64. The company has a quick ratio of 2.38, a current ratio of 3.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54.

Mueller Water Products (NYSE:MWA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 5th. The industrial products company reported $0.34 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $364.30 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $352.30 million. Mueller Water Products had a return on equity of 21.18% and a net margin of 10.05%. Mueller Water Products’s quarterly revenue was up 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.30 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Mueller Water Products, Inc. will post 1.24 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Mueller Water Products Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 21st. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 12th will be given a dividend of $0.067 per share. This represents a $0.27 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.09%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 12th. Mueller Water Products’s payout ratio is 30.23%.

About Mueller Water Products

Mueller Water Products, Inc manufactures and markets products and services for the transmission, distribution, and measurement of water used by municipalities, and the residential and non-residential construction industries in the United States, Israel, and internationally. It operates in two segments, Water Flow Solutions and Water Management Solutions.